From ritual efficacy to iconic efficiency: Tattoo, ritual encoding and the transformation of Samoan religiosity
Panel 2. Transformative appropriations and iconic power in the Pacific
Résumé
Within the last thirty years or so, iconographic corpus of ethnic tattoo designs have been increasingly used as efficient non-discursive ways of expressing indigeneity, commitment, belonging, strength, etc. While they are detached from their original destination (the human skin), tattoo designs do have an iconic power which rests on a process of naturalization due to their primal connection with the body. Their evocative strength together with their high portability tends to an all-out exploitation of this power through a multitude of media. In this paper, I will rely on the Samoan tattooing ritual to discuss the panel’s central topic. More specifically, I will address the process of iconicity by downplaying the discursive meaning of tattooed images. To the extent that Samoan tattooing combines a high standardization of patterns’ assemblage, a socially separated body of techniques with a relatively low symbolic emphasis on individual designs, we will try to re-evaluate its visual saliency by looking at its artefactuality. In other words, following Jeffrey Alexander’s iconology I’ll propose some line of thoughts to investigate the production and reception of tattooed images beyond the question their aesthetic power. Ethnographic insights on the technical process of making as well as on the arrangement of iconographic repertoire will provide the theoretically acclaimed materiality of iconic power some hidden-but-tangible data on ritual knowledge and performance.